Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This morning we’re continuing our teaching series called Christmas Specials. In this series, we’re revisiting some clips from a few classic Christmas TV specials and we’re being reminded of some of the simple life lessons that are taught through these shows.

So far we’ve watched clips from Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and from A Garfield Christmas.

Today we move on to the classic tale from Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Let’s watch our clip.

The Grinch, in all of his grinchy nastiness, did his best to steal the joy of Christmas. He did it by taking all of Whoville’s Christmas decorations, gifts, trees, stockings, and food. Surely this would create a very miserable Christmas for all the Whos in Whoville. Of course if you know the story, you know that the Grinch wasn’t successful in his mission. The joy of Christmas was still present in Whoville, despite the Grinch’s holiday burglaries.

But for a lot of us, the Grinch is a lot more successful in our lives than he was in Dr. Seuss’ story. A lot of us have grinches in our lives that seem to be quite effective in stealing our Christmas joy.

In Luke 2, an angel appeared to a group of shepherds who were tending their sheep in the fields. The angel came to announce the birth of Jesus in the town of Bethlehem.

In this announcement, the angel told the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” (Luke 2:10, NIV)

Christmas is about joy. Always has been. So why do we sometimes feel left out of the joy mix at Christmas? Because there are grinches lurking about, ready to swipe our Christmas joy.

We all have our own grinch lists. Those things that come into your life and sap all the Christmas spirit right out of you.

For me, it only takes a shopping trip to change my attitude. I actually enjoy Christmas shopping on some days, but lately, every trip I’ve made to the store has been an exercise in insanity. There’s nowhere to park, the store is jammed, the lines are long, people are rude, fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. There may be people in the world who have Christmas joy, but they aren’t shopping at Wal-Mart this year, I can tell you that.

What are your grinches? What are the things that wreak havoc on your Christmas spirit? Christmas shopping, traffic, writing out all your Christmas cards, holiday cooking, wrapping presents, stringing Christmas lights (which is enough to drive anyone mad).

Or maybe you have some more serious grinches to contend with. Family tension, loneliness (like we talked about last week), financial stress, health concerns, doubts and worries about what the next year will bring.

There are little annoyances and big issues in our lives that all seem to wage war on our holiday cheer. And our Holly Jolly Christmas turns rather Blue.

This morning we’re going to chase after some hope in all of this. We all have different Grinches. We all have things in our lives that seem to take away our Christmas joy. But the true joy that the angel told the shepherds about cannot be stolen by any Grinch. No matter how mean, how nasty, how grinchy that Grinch is.

When the angel came to the shepherds, he told them that he was bringing “good news of great joy that will be for all people.”

There are a couple of things we need to take out of this verse. First of all, we need to notice where this joy comes from. The angel brought good news of great joy. The joy was found in the news that the angel was bringing. The news was that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem.

Christmas joy comes from the Savior, not the season.

There’s a song that says, “I’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.” For a lot of us, we could say the same thing about joy. When it comes to this elusive Christmas joy, we often look in all the wrong places.

We rely on our family for our Christmas joy. Each Christmas, our families come together. You look around the table spread with your Christmas turkey and all the trimmings, and it just feels like this is what Christmas is all about.

We rely on gifts for our Christmas joy. Who doesn’t like receiving gifts? But it’s not just the gifts that we get, but the gifts that we give. It’s a great expression of love when we give these gifts, and it just feels like this is what Christmas is all about.

We rely on traditions for our Christmas joy. We do the same things each and every year. From putting up the tree, to sending out cards, to traveling to visit distant family members. These traditions have come to embody Christmas and they really feel like what Christmas is all about.

There is obviously nothing inherently wrong with family, or gifts, or holiday traditions. But the problem comes when we rely on them to provide us with Christmas joy. Every one of these things have the potential to let us down. Families aren’t perfect. Children misbehave. Spouses argue. Lots of people in little houses can create problems.

Gifts are also a poor source of joy. If we’re not careful, they can instill lessons of materialism and greed, which are enemies of joy.

Traditions can’t provide the joy we desire because traditions change. Children grow up and move away. Things never go as perfectly as we plan, which can leave us disappointed.

The reason that we often look to these things for holiday joy is that these things can make us happy. Family, gifts, and traditions can all provide us with happy feelings. But this is where we make our critical error.

Happiness and joy are not the same things. Happiness is an emotion. It is a feeling. If things are going well, we feel happy. But when things take a turn for the worse, our happiness leaves us.

But joy is a different animal. Warren Wiersbe said, “Happiness depends on right happenings, but even when things go wrong you can have joy.”

That’s because joy is God’s Christmas gift to us. Christmas joy is not found in all the trappings of the season. It’s not even found in all the good things that this season has to offer. Our joy comes from knowing that Jesus was born to us so that he could die for us. Our joy comes from knowing that, regardless of what we’re going through, we have a God who is walking through it with us. Our joy comes from the hope that one day, all our struggles and hurts and heartaches will be taken away forever as we live for all eternity in the presence of God. One of the reasons that our grinches are able to steal our Christmas joy is that we’re looking for our joy in the wrong places. Christmas joy is found in the Savior, not the season.

Let’s go back to what the angel said to the shepherds. He said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” (Luke 2:10, NIV)

The joy is found in the news that the angel was bringing. But who is the joy for? All people. Everybody.

Write this down on your notes. Christmas joy is for me. This joy is for all people, so if you’re person, then it’s for you.

Earlier this month at APEX, we talked about the significance of this announcement to a group of shepherds. Shepherds were at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder in their culture. Shepherds were looked down upon. They were discriminated against. Shepherds weren’t allowed to vote. They weren’t even allowed to worship in the temple. And yet God sent his angel to these outcasts and announced the birth of his Son. These loser shepherds were the first ones invited to come and see the Christ child.

Christmas joy is for all people. It was for a bunch of smelly, dirty, shepherds. And it is for me and it is for you.

But remember that there are grinches in our lives that are ready to try to steal it all away. In the Dr. Seuss story, the Grinch assumed that since he had stolen all the Christmas décor and gifts, the Whos of Whoville would have no Christmas joy. The Grinch believed that joy was based on someone’s situation. If the situation worsened, then joy would be absent.

But the Whos still gathered in the center of town and sang and celebrated together. They still experienced joy because joy isn’t based on our situation.

That’s great news, because for a lot of us, our situation is not that great. There are a lot of different people in our church family who are dealing with some serious life issues. And if joy was based on circumstances or situations, they’d be in deep trouble. But joy is not based on circumstances or situations. Joy is not an emotion. It is not a feeling.

Joy is found in knowing the truth. The truth is that God is present in our situation and God is bigger than our circumstances. The truth is that Jesus Christ died for me and is coming back for me. The truth is that God promised that this life would be tough, but he also promised that this life would be temporary.

Happiness is found when things are going well. Happy circumstances beget happy feelings. But joy is based on knowing the truth. Situations change, but the truth remains constant.

This is why Paul could write in the book of Philippians, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4, NLT)

What we have to realize is that Paul was in prison when he wrote these words. He was confined in a cramped, dark, damp, rat-infested cell. Do you think for a moment that he was happy about his current situation? No way. But he was joyful.

And these words he penned are not a suggestion for us. They are a command. In Paul’s mind, a joyless Christian is a contradiction in terms.

The joy of the Lord is for all people, and that includes you. A few weeks ago, Nicki wrapped some of our Christmas gifts and placed them under our tree. There were gifts for our parents and grandparents and a few other folks. We weren’t going to put Ryan’s gifts under the tree until Christmas arrived. That is until Ryan, our two-year-old son, told his grandparents that all these people had gifts under our tree, but then he said, “But no presents for me.”

Well, that about broke my wife’s heart, so needless to say Ryan has a gift that is now sitting under our Christmas tree.

When it comes to this idea of joy, some of us feel like it’s a gift for other people. But we’re left out. Life has really dealt us a tough hand and there’s no gift of joy with our name on it.

But God says differently. He sent his angel to tell a bunch of rag-tag shepherds that this gift of joy is for “all people.” I’m not going to pretend for a moment that all of us here will have a perfect holiday. The holidays can be a grim reminder of everything that is going wrong in our lives. But I am saying that, regardless of how great or how miserable Christmas is for us this year, it can still be a time of joy because joy has zip, zero, nothing to do with our circumstances. It has everything to do with knowing the truth of God, not only in our head, but also in our heart.

There was an older man who was on his way home from a business trip. While on the plane, he found himself involved in a conversation with a young lady in the next seat. She told him about her husband and her baby boy. He told her that he recently became a widower and that his only child had died when she was only 6 years old. She felt very sorry for the old man, but he said, “It’s ok. I’m not home yet.”

She assumed he meant that there would be other family to meet him at the airport, a brother or sister maybe. When they walked off the plane together, the young lady embraced her husband and her son. She looked over at the old man, who kept walking through the airport, alone. No family or friends to greet him. She ran up to the man, again expressing sympathy for him. He smiled and replied, “I’m not home yet.”

The man took a cab the rest of the way to his house. When he walked into the empty, dark house, he couldn’t hold back his tears anymore. As he began to cry, God’s Spirit gently reminded him, “It’s ok. You’re not home yet.”

Our circumstances may stink. Our situation may be tough. The grinches in our lives may be big and mean. But there is joy in knowing that we’re not home yet.

In the book of Galatians, Paul asked the Christians in Galatia, “What has happened to all your joy?” (Galatians 4:15, NIV) That’s a pretty relevant question for us today, isn’t it? Have you allowed the Grinch of your circumstances to rob you of your joy? Or are you looking past your situation and hanging onto God’s promises, even in the tough times?

J.L. Packer wrote, “The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will, Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross.”

Jesus birth set him on a course that would lead him to death. And in his death and resurrection, we have new hope, new peace, and new joy. If you’ve never accepted Jesus as the Savior and Lord of your life, then you’re probably wondering about all this joy stuff. Is it really for you? God says emphatically and absolutely, “YES!” He wouldn’t have died for you if that weren’t the case. We invite you to experience the joy of the Lord this morning by meeting him at the foot of the cross.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: angel, Christmas, joy, Luke 2, shepherds